Elemental Plane of Earth
The Elemental Plane of Earth is a solid place made of rock, soil, and stone. An unwary and unprepared traveler may find himself entombed within this vast solidity of material and have his life crushed into nothingness, his powdered remains a warning to any foolish enough to follow. Despite its solid, unyielding nature, the Elemental Plane of Earth is varied in its consistency, ranging from relatively soft soil to veins of heavier and more valuable metal. Planar Traits * Gravity: Heavy Gravity. The penalties of the heavy gravity trait apply to all creatures, native and visitor, on the plane * Time: Normal * Size: Infinite * Speacial Traits: Earth Dominant * Enhanced Earth: All abilities with the Earth descriptor are immediately enhanced as if the character had used extra effort to surge. A character can still use extra effort, effectively doubling the bonus. * Impeded Air: All abilities with the Air descriptor require a DC 15 Concentration check or do not function as if Nullified. A character can use extra effort to automatically pass this check. Elemental Plane of Earth Links Several portals exist to other planes. A majority of these portals lead to the Prime Plane, in the form of a vortice (a naturally occuring portal between the elemental plane and an earthen section of the prime material plane). Actual portals to the Prime are more common than anywhere else, and exist as doorways and holes in chunks of earth that dot the plane. Portals to other planes are rarer, but not unheard of. Portals to many outer planes exist, and most planes sport several portals to elemental earth. Most of these portals are deep in the ground of those planes, however, and not accessable to most planar travellers. By far, however, the most common way to enter and leave the plane is to simply head to the "border regions" where the Elemental Plane of Earth becomes tainted with another element or energy. These areas act as transition areas to neighboring planes (The Quasi-Elemental Planes and the Para-Elemental Planes). Inhabitants Earth elementals make up a majority of the planes inhabitants. Elder earth elementals roam the plane, acting as guardians, while the smaller elementals follow their lead. Even the tiny earth elementite swarms patrol the plane. Earth Elemental Monoliths and Primal Earth Elementals monitor the lesser elementals, and report to their superiors. Crystal beetle swarms also live on the plane, making the sound of rushing water a fearsome sound for many travelers, while Xorns and Stone Flyers make more silent predators. The Dao also live on the Elemental Plane of Earth, often housing the Janni and Earth Gen cousins, and mining the plane for their own enrichment. Earth mephits, gargoyles, stone giants, dwarves, liths, earth gliders, shad, earthdelvers, earth grues, asag, denzelian, pech, stonechildren, amethyst and sapphire dragons, earth wierds, walking walls, earth genasi, galeb duhr, earth whisperers, earth element creatures, half-earth elementals, Rukarazyll, stonesingers, earth element drakes, gulgar, blackrock triskelions, greathorn minotaurs, Tralusk, Dunestalker, and sandknights all call the plane home. Interlopers from neighbouring elemental planes and general inner planar creatures like monadic devas and unravelers can also be found here. Movement and Combat Two kinds of movement are possible through the Elemental Plane of Earth: digging ad walking through the tunnels and caverns. Digging is a tiring activity, done at the rate of 5 feet per 10 minutes. Moving through passages is like normal movement and bears all the perils of exploring caves on the material plane. Individuals with the permeate ability do not become intangible when they move this way. Rather, they move like a fish through water, allowing the earth to close behind them in their wake. Such creatures do not normally leave a tunnel behind for others to follow, unless digging at the speed and manner mentioned above. An astrally projecting traveler whose form manifests on this plane gains the earth glide ability, but only on the Elemental Plane of Earth. Earth Combat Except as noted for elemental traits, combat is normal on the Elemental Plane of Earth. A traveler with permeate can be attacked normally and might face attacks from assailants that can move in a similar fashion. Features of the Elemental Plane of Earth For the traveler, the greatest danger on the Elemental Plane of Earth is being accidentally caught and suffocated within solid earth. Travelers who manifest in the caverns and other "clear areas" of the plane are safe from that danger (unless a cave-in occurs), but a traveler who suddenly manifests randomly on the plane runs the rist of suffocation and speedy burial. Even creatures that do not need to breathe may still find themselves trapped in the rock and soil, unable to extricate themselves. In such cases they must wait for rescue by an outside source, and they may fall prey to starvation and dehydration. Elemental Earth Locations *The Aviary: Anyone who has ever dreamed of flying through the air like a bird will love this place. The Aviary is a large pocket of air 15 miles in diameter and populated by a colony of avariel. The winged elves have built a wonderful city here so open and airy that it is easy for a visitor to forget that he is in anything more than a giant cave. A visitor to the Aviary can purchase or rent a pair of wings, allowing him to fly about like a bird. It takes some getting used to, but a skilled flyer can maneuver as gracefully and elegantly as any naturally feathered creature. The pressures of the plane and the pull of gravity in all directions make the Aviary , in effect, without any gravity at all. *Caverns of the Hidden Ones: A series of small caverns that are the home of the Hidden Ones, a group of super-powered beings trapped here long ago from the Kingdom of Paragons. *The Caverns Under the Stars: Geb's labyrinthine realm is known as the Caverns Under the Stars. A portal to Elysium (where his wife and sister Nut resides) stands at the center of the Caverns, but Geb has never let its location be discovered. It may be that Shu discovered and destroyed the portal long ago. The realm is a vast pyramidal chamber, 30 miles on a side. The shape of the chamber is not apparent, however, for the upper half is shrouded by the night sky (this expanse of twinkling stars and midnight blue is a gift to Geb from his estranged wife). A sprawling city of magnificent stone buildings and temples, similar to those found in Heliopolis, covers the bottom of the cavern. Geb's palace stands at the exact center of the realm, surrounded by a circular river of pure, sweet water. *Echolost: Where no tunnels reach, there can be found the closed cavern of Echolost. Vast in size, echoes chase each other across the wide space for eternity. Some are so complex that they may be considered creatures in their own right, though they could not exist outside the space of Echolost. One side of the cavern in particular, known as the Wall of Echoes is special. It appears as a flat black expance of dense, rocklike material. It absorbs any sound that falls upon it, then once again emits that sound minutes, hours, days, or sometimes many years later. Sages sometimes come here just to listen to the wall, hoping to hear whispers of knowledge long-lost. The other major feature of the cavern, the Earthpool, is a basin of dust so fine that it appears to be liquid, though woe to those who mistake the pale dust for water. *The Great Dismal Delve: All dao live within the area of the plane of Earth called the Great Dismal Delve. This region is filled with mazework citadels ruled by minor nobles, with the Great Khan - the leader of the entire realm and race - living in a mazework all his own. Much larger, however, is the vast number of earth elementals and elemental-kin who serve them, and the nonnative laves who toil endlessly to increase the size of their domains. At the heart of the Delve is a vast center of commerce and trade - a veritable city that surrounds the palace of the Great Khan of All Dao, Kabril Ali al-Sara al-Zalazil, the Fountain of Wealth, the Perfect Compass, Atamen of the Mountain's Roots, the Stone Sultan (and so on, and so on, and so on). This place is called the Sevenfold Mazework. Few words are majestic enough to describe the central court of the dao. In addition to being a truly immense fortress in its own right, it is said that this place connects to each and every mazework within the Great Dismal Delve. The linking tunnels allow the dao to move freely about the khanate with their slaves, who often cannot pass trough the stone. In addition, pockets of every concievable elemental, para-elemental, and quasi-elemental material can be found somewhere in the delve, with connecting tunnels to the great market and fabulous forges of the Sevenfold Market. With all of these resources at his command, the Great Khan of the dao is one of the most powerful beings on the plane. The Great Khan lives within the Hidden Fulcrum of the Dao, a secretive palace where the ruler of these evil people plots his twisted schemes and lusts after treasure he has not yet acquired or stolen. Rumors speak of a magical rune that secretly marks all objects in the Sevenfold Mazework, particularly gemstones, as property of the Great Khan. The dao punish thieves who try to steal from the ruler with death. It is rumored that the Great Khan is looking for a way to wrest the Orange light of Avarace from Larfleeze. *The Great Mountain: Home of Grumbar, Boss of Earth. *Sandfall: Sandfall is a fortress built within a cavern underneath a perpetually falling column of sand. The sand eventually drains down into what appears to be a bottomless pit not far away from Sunnis' stronghold. Many folk have likened the Sandfall's area to the bottom half of a great hourglass. Some say the earthly cascade flows eternally from the quasiplane of Dust - a gift from a suitor from Dust to the one he loves. Rumor has it that the heart of Sandfall is built around a gleaming crystal some 50 feet across. Those who have seen it - or claim to have seen it, at any rate - say that it gives off a blinding light. What the crystal is or where it comes from varies from telling to telling, and only Sunnis knows the truth. *Stonemire: The immense fortress known as Stonemire stands upon a giant plateau inside an immense cavern near the border with the para-elemental plane of Magma. The temperature here is so great that few living things can tolerate it. Fountains of molten stone, clouds of searting hot smoke, and geysers of scalding steam are scattered about as decorations. The plateau upon which Stonemire rests is said to contain the bodies of the countless fools who ran afoul of its owner, the Archomental Ogremoch. Whether they are slain and buried or magically imprisoned in the rock is difficult to say. Earth